


The Beast inside

by Chloe_the_Cactus



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Action/Adventure, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Family Feels, Female Protagonist, Flashbacks, Hurt/Comfort, Memories, Mental Health Issues, My First Fanfic, Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Female Character, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Strong Female Characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:40:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21646921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chloe_the_Cactus/pseuds/Chloe_the_Cactus
Summary: She tried to recreate a normal life but the voices never left her
Relationships: Ignis Scientia/Original Character(s), Ignis Scientia/Original Female Character(s), Ignis Scientia/Reader
Kudos: 7





	1. The beginning

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first ever fanfiction I have ever written so please be gentle;
> 
> I have many feelings about this game and I've been putting it off for so long to actually write something so here goes
> 
> Happy reading :)

"I see"

"You're just tired, that's all"

"It's okay, everything is going to be fine"

"You're not on your own"

"We're all here, with you"

"I'm here"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All was quiet, a gentle breeze creeped through the ajar window into the room where Velvet was working. Deep in concentration, she failed to notice the door burst open with great force. The young Amicitia bounced into the room with a loud and heartfelt greeting for the young woman, in turn causing the papers Velvet had stacked into neat, organised piles to erupt before making their descent to the floor, floating ever so gracefully, until they landed around Velvet's feet in a now unorganised fashion.

"O-oh good morning Velvet.." Iris stuttered as one final document fell through the air and planted itself on Velvet's head. She removed it hastily, taking a deep breath to try and hide her annoyance from the young girl.

Velvet turns towards her younger acquaintance while attempting to smooth the wisps of her black hair that were sticking out in uneven angles. 

"Hi Iris" Velvet stated, trying her best to sound pleasant, then dropping to her knees to begin collecting the documents off the floor. 

"Sorry, I didn't think you would've been working this early. You know you shouldn't feel obligated to do this, you merely helping with the hunts is enough. Jared really appreciates your help you know". Iris rushed, helping to clean up the mess she made, whilst Velvet clumped the pile of papers onto her lap. 

"I'm not doing this because I feel like I have to, I'm doing this because I want to. I owe you all this, and much more for how you have helped me" she said. Iris smiled at small hint of praise, which was rare for Velvet. 

Iris reached over to retrieve the papers Velvet had on her lap, "Here, let me take those for you - Jared doesn't need them while tomorrow" As she leaned in, Velvet flinched and moved away from the brown haired girl, which caused the papers to slide to the floor in the process.

"H-hey are you okay?" Iris asked, glancing concerned at Velvet, who was now clutching onto her right arm. "Is it still sore?". 

Velvet's eyes left Iris, glanced slowly down loosening her grip. Velvet paused and took a closer look, the sight of it she would never be used too.

From her shoulder to the tips of her fingers, Velvet's right arm was securely fastened in a white bandage - parts of the fibers strayed away from there place near her elbow and fingers, while some strands of the bandage were loose towards her shoulder, causing them to droop down and hang to the side of her arm. 

Velvet's right arm being fully bandaged surprisingly did not hinder her ability to move it - she had no issues moving her arm around and lifting objects, she just needed to take it easy, which Velvet is awful at doing. The only issues she has found currently is when she's on hunts as only being able to fight using her weakest arm while keeping her right away from danger made the hunts much for difficult and time consuming.

Velvet sighed and replaced her hand on her bandaged arm, hissing quietly from the contact to avoid making Iris worry and looked towards her " Don't worry it's fine, one of the louder market shopkeepers shouting made me jump, thanks Iris you're a big help" Velvet told her as she was praying with her inner conscious that her excuse to her friend would be believed. 

"No problem! I'll go take these now, I'll see you later okay and you better let me plait your hair!" She pouted as she skipped out of the room in her usual joyful manner.

Velvet smirked and rose to her feet whilst brushing off the small specs of dust off her trousers. Iris' obsession with her hair always surprised her, remembering back to when they first met with Iris constantly throwing words of praise to her about "how beautiful her hair was" and "oh my gosh its so long and you do nothing with it? Can I plait it for you please?!" Velvet always brushed the compliments off to the side, she never thought anything of her hair it was just, hair? Her long black locks sat on her back with the tips coming to a stop near her waist, the way her hair looked didn't matter to Velvet - she just wanted to be able to get on with her day without any issues so a simple loose ponytail was fine for her.

"N-nghh" Velvet groaned causing her to stagger backwards and collide with the desk behind her. Her head was pounding, the pain came in large stabs as if she was being hit over the head constantly with a mental pipe.

"C-come on nghh not a-again ahh" she whined as she shuffled quickly towards to door to close it. No one can she her like this, no one can know, she needs to hide.

Velvet pressed her back against the door,trying her best not to slam the door shut due to the amount of pain she was in, sliding down to sit on the floor when her feet gave way with her legs going limp, Velvet tried to keep her breathing steady despite the pain and numbing sensation that was slowly making its presence known as the familiar burning sensation running up and down her right arm. Her right arm felt like it was on fire, burning her to the bone. Velvet continued to cringe in silence to hide her pain from the world, she needed to stay calm, keep quiet until the episode has stopped.

After a few minutes that felt like hours the pain finally subsided - the burning had stopped, the numbness was gone, her breathing had returned to normal and beginning to have sensation back in her limbs. Velvet rose from the floor and brushed herself off to check she was presentable and there was no remnant of what just transpired.

She picked up her things and left the office to carry on the day.


	2. The encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Velvet takes a walk into the markets of Lestallum and it takes an unexpected turn

The streets of Lestallum where as busy and hectic as always, the streets and alleyways where full on tourists wanting to explore the city and sample to famous delicacies from the market - from bread, fruit and other spices this market had it all. A true paradise for those wanting to broaden their horizons with their cooking talents.

The architecture of Lestallum was still out of this world to Velvet considering her the houses in her home town were made out of simple wood and brick structures with only spanning to one floor, two if you had the money for it which was a common issue back home for her. The homes of Lestallum towered over in size making the home that Velvet grew up in seem like a mere shack to the towers that was a Lestallum home.

The buildings of Lestallum had delicate and ornate designs - each building was coated in a sheer white paint with the windows painted black or navy to make them stand out from the background, the roofs were a simple layered design matching the colours of the windows. Some of the buildings had small patterns drawn on them of lines that depict into larger image on the sides of the building, beautiful golden sketches of the gods told in old text to young children.

Lestallum was a perfect location to live, ideal for family life and a place to retire with the amount of restaurants and entertainment complexes that littered the streets and various alleyways that all connected to the market and historical landmarks in the city.

Velvet was never a fan of cities of this much larger scale than the simple and quiet village life she was accustomed to back home, fancy restaurants and bars of the like never peaked her interest. Even being in some of the more busy areas of Lestallum, the "prime tourist" locations that Jared calls them, always caused the creeping feeling of anxiety pulse around Velvet's head making her breathing became erratic - which is why Velvet choose the more discreet alleyways to walk to and from her desired locations to avoid having to make awkward conversations with passersby, talking was never Velvet's strong suit as she preferred to keep to herself but then again she's better at talking to others than what she was considering Velvet would only communicate to Iris and Jared with a simple 'yes' or 'no' answers to their questions when they first met.

Well they didn't really meet her, they found her..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Velvet sat comfortably on the wall overlooking the architecture of the city as well as the fast landscape of the plains beyond the outskirts of the city with the sea waves crashing into each other and the rocks stick out near the shore. Her headache has pretty much faded away with the remnants of small pulses of pain that lasted seconds from time to time which Velvet ignored putting her focus to her left hand that was spinning her sheathed dagger in between her fingers, the dagger danced gracefully from her hand into the air as she got more confident as she began to throw the dagger higher on each return of the weapon to her palm, the sentimental value of this dagger was something that Velvet will always treasure and a vital piece of equipment to help her with different tasks from removing the necessary furr or meat from the hunters requests to helping open ancient cupboards or boxes caked in dust that Jared had found in one of the storerooms.

Velvet leaned her head against the wall behind her, closing her eyes to take in the sounds of the waves to soothe her overcrowded mind.

"VeLVEt wHY DId YoU LEaVE ME?!"

The unknown scream made Velvet jolt from her peaceful state and drop the dagger to the ground, leaping into action and readying herself in preparation for attack. Her breaths were shallow and fast with her eyes darting all around her looking to see were the scream she heard had came from, but there was no one, she was the only one there, she was alone and safe.

Velvet returned to her normal posture while mentally kicking herself in the process, "There's no one here you idiot" she cursed to herself while kicking a stone across the ground "The voices will go away, no matter how much they hurt, no matter.. how much they haunt you"

Taking a deep breathe she crouched down on one knee to pick up her dropped dagger, inspecting the small knife to make sure if it was damaged or not and luckily the dagger was fine and in perfect condition. While down on her knee she heard a faint clink of cans being moved behind her, glancing over her shoulder to where the sound came from puzzled to see there was nothing or no one near the litter of cans that rolled along the ground - thinking the coast was clear Velvet slowly moved her glance back to the dagger in her hand only to drop it and jumped backwards, falling from her crouch and landing on her backside due to the unexpected brown blob and appeared next to her hand. Focusing her sight she saw what cause of her fall was;

"Meow" the young brown cat purred as it sat proudly in front of her, it's bright sea blue eyes shining at her with devious intent as proud of its achievement of getting Velvet's attention.

Releasing a deep breath that Velvet had no idea she was holding; Velvet slouched slighting and smirked to herself as the young cat sauntered over to her and sat in the space between Velvet's legs, purring as a sign of apology to the young woman. Velvet glanced up towards her new feline friend that sat comfortably in front of her, Velvet would never admit it to Iris but her heart easily melts and quickly forgives the cat for scaring her.

"And what do you want hmm?" She cooed as she reached to stroke the cat behind its left ear, the young cat leaning into Velvet's touch purring loudly in enjoyment from the pats being given. If anyone saw Velvet being soft and mussy for a little cat she would die from embarrassment considering she acts more cold towards her other acquaintances.

Rising to her feet, dusting the dust from the path of her clothing, the young cat weaving its way around Velvets feet making sure to leave small cat hairs stick to her boots while making its tail curl around Velvet's boots. Reaching down to give one final scratch to its head Velvet shooed the cat away to make sure it began its journey home to its owners.

Reaching into her pocket, Velvet retrieved her pocket watch to check the time.

13:20pm it read as she put the small trinket back into her pocket, she still had plenty of time to stop at the market and pick up a few bits for herself and Jared, maybe even a small gift for Talcott and Iris too she wondered and she began her trek through the winding alleyways to her desired location.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The lunchtime rush of the market was starting to thin out by the time Velvet arrived at the market due to her choice of route and she was thankful for it, the less people the better. Stopping just before the one of the entryways to the market, Velvet untied her thin scarf from around her waist and flinging it over her right shoulder and moving the other end of the scarf under her right arm. Carefully, Velvet tied the scarf into a make-shift sling while making sure none of her arm was shown from out of the sling to not get any unwanted attention from nosy passersby and children.

Entering the market, the smells of the different spices and food products wafted into Velvet's nose causing her stomach to growl quietly as she paced around each individual stall in the area around her. "No time for that now," she said to herself as she shuffled past bright-eyed tourists and young couples shopping for the little ornaments and toys or flowers from the wide variety of shopkeepers.

Walking over towards the fresh produce stall: Velvet paid for the small items of food she needed for herself and a few bits for Jared, while picking up a small figurine of the series that Talcott liked as well as a small broach for Iris after becoming fed up of Iris' consistent complaining of "I have nothing nice to wear with my clothes, I had to leave them all behind when we had to evacuate".

Velvet would never forget the state Iris was in when she told her what had happened back in Insomnia; The king dead, her father dead, the city destroyed and people screaming and running for their lives. Iris did her best to put on a brave face when explaining it all to Velvet but ended up breaking down in tears with Talcott hugging her with Jared rubbing her back trying to calm her down - Velvet just sat there stunned beyond belief, that sort of situation was all too familiar for Velvet with it hitting her painfully close to home.

The empire will pay, most definitely.

"Hey give that back!" A young voice shouted

"Back off kid" an older and and much deeper voice spat back

Glancing over to where the commotion was coming from, Velvet could see two young children, a boy and a girl, trying to take something that the older man was holding in his hand. "A bag of apples?" She thought to herself as she continued to listen in on the argument while making sure she had all of her purchases and correct change in her pocket.

"Those apples belong to us, you can't have them!" The young boy shouted while trying to jump and grab the apples from the man's hand, missing from a mile off which the sheer difference in height.

"You paid for them? Quit lying kid and get lost, these are mine now" The older man laughed back in the young child's face, clearly finding it amusing at the pathetic attempts the young boy was making to retrieve the apples from him.

"Please sir.." the young girl quietly asked "we did pay for them, can we have the back please, our mum needs them" She finished while fiddling with the material on her cardigan.

"Sorry princess but there's no changing my mind now, you stole these and they now belong to me understand" he spat at the young girl who was on the verge of bursting into tears. Everyone just stood and ignored the older man that was bullying the two young children, avoiding their gazes away from the situation to avoid causing a scene. Velvet began to hurry towards the exit of the market, she didn't have time for this - even looking at the two young children reminding her. Reminded her of them.

"You know you want to help them, so what are you waiting for" the older familiar female voice said causing Velvet to stop dead in her tracks, nearly dropping the back of items in her left hand. Clenching her fist that was hidden behind her homemade sling silently cursing to herself while arguing with the voices in her head, she put her bag of shopping into a nearby crate to keep it safe and made her way over to the argument in progress.

The young boy was still jumping trying to retrieve his items from the older man with the younger girl wiping her cheeks to try and hide her tears from being overwhelmed with the situation, the older man just stood and laughed while waving the bag of apples around making the boy jump in multiple angles to try and get them - To the older gentleman this was one huge game for him, the kid was the moth and the bag of apples in his hand was the flame.

"What do you think you're doing?" Velvet raised her voice as she moved towards the three of them, the young girl quickly running towards Velvet to hide behind her legs. The young boys eyes lit up seeing her come to their aid by scurrying over to Velvet and tugging on the end of her jacket.

"He took our apples miss, he said we stole em but we didn't!" He exclaimed while pointing towards the older man that was now stood silent and staring at Velvet.

"Our mummy needs them, our daddy is sick and we need them to make medicine" the little girl whimpered quickly peeking out of her hiding place and back to remain out of sight of the older man.

"And who are you supposed to be huh? Their big sis or somthin? The oracle even?" He barked gaining some snickers from passersby, Velvet took no notice to his remarks ushering the two children to the side.

"Just give them back the apples, they paid for them right?" She said glancing towards the shopkeeper surprised with the attention now being turned on him, the shopkeeper just ignored Velvet's question and continued counting his money. "Some help you are" she mumbled to herself turning back towards the older man in front of her "Just hand over the apples and this doesn't have to go any further" Velvet explained extending her left arm out with an open palm waiting for the bags of apples to be placed.

"Really huh? What are you gonna do?" The man taunted while slowly walking towards Velvet whilst throwing the bag of apples to the side, "Come on! What you gonna do?" He raised his voice, now more closer to Velvet, she didn't move, she held her ground.

deep breaths, deep breaths

"I SAID WHAT YOU GONNA DO YOU BITCH" The scruffy man shouted and pushed Velvet to the ground, causing her to collide with the pavement and make her sling come unloose and fall off her right arm. The young children shouted in disgust to the older man while others just watched in silence as the situation began to explode.

Winded, Velvet tried to push herself off the ground with her right arm not caring at the pain that began to stab her from her fingers all the way up to her shoulder. Without even realising a hand grabbed onto the collar of her jacket, causing her to make a confused shout as the man pulls Velvet back and flings her into one of the nearby stalls - her stomach crashing into the side of the table causing her to gag. Trying to recover her bearings, she began to slowly push herself up off the table. The familiar feeling of blood slowly cascading down her cheek from where her face had hit one of the boxes on the stall.

"Come on then! You little, weak bitch!" The man shouted at her, pleased with the scene he was making to the others around him as a warning. "Time to teach a little punk like you a lesson" he commented as he strides over, his arm outstretched to grab Velvet once again.

In the blink of an eye, Velvet span round and punched the older man straight in the face, hearing the satisfying crunching sound coming from the man's face from under her left fist causing the man to stagger backwards and clutch onto his face as blood began to leak from the cut on his nose. "Y-you.. I'LL BATTER YOU" the man howled like a beast as he charged towards Velvet. Velvet side-stepped out of the direction of the charging man and kicked him in the back of his leg causing the man to yelp and fall forward and quickly spinning to kick him in the stomach sending the man flying onto his backside.

"Move along and get lost!" She said, glaring at the man. The man's expression suddenly changed into fear after seeing the cold, dead stare from Velvet's blue eyes - quickly standing to his feet and running out of the market while pushing other shoppers out the way in a hurry.

Everyone just stood in silence and stared in shock towards Velvet after what had just transpired, there had been rumours of someone, a creature more like that had recently started living in Lestallum. A creature with no heart, a creature with violent outbursts, a creature with eyes that showed nothing but death.

Velvet paid no mind to the stares from strangers as she wiped the blood from her cheek onto her sleeve whilst walking to where the man had thrown the bag of apples, stepping over her scarf in the process that had fallen off her right arm in the scuffle. With the apples now back in her hand she checked them to make sure they were not completed destroyed, only some minor bruises to each apple.

Walking back over to the two children that had to watch the whole scenario, she bent down and handed the bag over to the two of them, "I think these are your's" she said blankly as the young boy took the back from Velvet.

"Thank you so much miss" they both said quietly in unison, making small hops up and down out of joy.

"Go on, run along now" Velvet waved the two kids off in a fast manner and the two children ran out of the market and back home. Velvet sighed and reached down to pick up her scarf.

*clap* *clap* *clap*

Velvet stopped and turned towards where the clapping was coming from only to groan in annoyance as she sees Iris walk up to her with an unfamiliar group of four behind her, "You really showed him! Your so strong Velvet" Iris beamed as she swayed in front of her with the four strangers coming to a stop behind her.

"Yeah yeah whatever" Velvet brushed her off, rubbing her left hand from where she had punched the man from before, "Who's your new friends?" Velvet questioned while slowly glancing to the quartet behind her and then back to Iris.

"Oh right!" She giggled as you turned towards the new group "This is my big brother Gladio and next to him is Noctis, Ignis and Prompto" she explained while pointing to each of them after saying their names.

"So you've been keeping an eye of my lil sis? Hope she hasn't been too much of a pain in the ass" the large, tattooed and muscular man laughed causing Iris to pout and playfully smack her brother on the arm

"Gladdy cut it out!" She whined causing the shorter blonde boy to laugh along with him

"Come on Iris don't listen to him, he's only kidding besides your not annoying in the slightest" the hyper blonde boy said to her causing Iris to blush slighting and mess with one of her strands of her brown hair. Feeling a pair of eyes staring at her, Velvet glanced and looked at the raven haired boy that stood slightly taller than Prompto.

"So your the man of the hour huh?" Velvet spoke towards him "King Noctis?" She taunted noticing Noctis flinch at the words she spoke

"A bit much don't you think considering you just started a fight with someone in public?" He threw back at her causing the black haired woman to chuckle

"In this world it's kill or be killed or in this case fight or lie down and surrender like a dog but then again you wouldn't know what's that like considering you've had it good for you hmm?" She said coldly.

Noctis tried to walk towards her in a professional manner but is stopped by a gloved hand on his shoulder from the last man who is yet to speak, he stands there quietly pushing up his glasses while shaking his head at Noctis, stopping him from making a scene.

"There that way, the bitch that attacked me is over there!" A voice shouted as the group looked towards one of the entrances to the market

"Shit" Velvet cursed, it was the man from before that was terrorising them kids now with law enforcement with him. The man pointed furiously at Velvet in pure anger as the officers began to make there way towards her, Velvet quickly tapped Iris on the shoulder "Gotta run" she said in a hurry as she began to run out of the market

"Velvet?" Iris shouted back to her confused and she watched her friend run off frantically

Before running out of sight Velvet quickly turned back towards the group "Jared's shopping is in the crate near the Cactor toy!" Velvet shouted at Iris before quickly turning on her heels and darting out of the market and into the streets of Lestallum.

The officers pushing past Iris and the others while blowing their whistles

"After her now!"


	3. The consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Every action has a consequence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating in a while, a lot of personal stuff happened in my life that needed to take priority. I hope everyone is staying safe at the current difficult time in the world and I hope you enjoy reading :)

The sound of Velvet’s heels on the stone tiles filled the narrow streets of Lestallum as she continued to sprint from the officers pursuing her for the last few minutes, her breathing was heavy by how much she was running - her throat was burning and she could feel the blood from her injury on her face begin to dry from the wind hitting her face as she ran

“She ran this way” an officer shouted as they began to catch up to her

“All this shit for simplifying defending some kids” she huffed as she jumped over some crates that were blocking some of the smaller alleys in the city. Landing as gracefully as she could in her current state, Velvet turned around and moved some of the forgotten crates to block the alley more before ducking into a small doorway

“Damn it we lost her” an officer panted as he came to a stop by the crates that Velvet had moved “She could be anywhere by now”

“Try the market again, you heard what she said - she had left some stuff there or whatever” another officer added before they retraced their steps back to the market. Velvet poked her head from the doorway to she she had finally lost them, breathing a sigh of relief she left her hiding spot and began to walk back towards Leville - now regretting how far she had ran from the market considering she was now in one of the quieter areas of Lestallum making it nearly impossible to figure out which direction to go considering how literally every stone tile looked the same!

So she walked and walked and walked and walked some more as Velvet attempted to guide her way back towards a familiar part of the city she knew, limping slightly from the unintentional fight she had back at the market while using her shelve to try and rub the small line of blood from her face. She would deal with that later, she just needed to get back to Talcott and Jared

After moving some more crates out of the way, Velvet emerged to the small rest spot where she was sat earlier with the cat before the whole market fiasco happened - moving towards the wall Velvet slumped and sat down with her back against it and closed her eyes, letting the surroundings take over as she finally began to regain her energy. She knew she shouldn’t have gotten involved with those kids and the apples but of course she let the voices in her head lapse her judgement 

She told herself she would ignore them over and over again but the last few weeks it had been more difficult, a familiar stabbing pain resurfaced in her head - causing Velvet the curse to herself

“Shit, not again.. Ngh” she groaned as she brought her hand to the side of her head, clawing her fingers into her scalp

The screaming  
All she could heard was the screaming  
From then, why couldn’t it jus-  
The sound of footsteps brought her back to reality 

“Shit” she hissed as she used her left arm to drag her body to lean against the wall “pull yourself together” she chanted in her head as she tried to regain her balance

“Ah, I finally found you” an unfamiliar and professional voice announced, Velvet turned towards the voice and was surprised to see the final of the quartet of Iris’ friends standing before her; Ignis

“Great, a piss off the prince and now your here to kill me right” she scoffed 

“Not quite” Ignis replied moving his glasses “But you dropped this” he added holding out Velvet’s dagger towards her still in it's shief

A flame of distress exploded in Velvet’s chest as she began to pat her pockets to she her dagger was indeed not there before quickly walking towards Ignis

“At least the guards didn’t find it” she said blankly reaching her arm to take the dagger from his hand before huffing in annoyance as Ignis moved the dagger from her reach “Do you mind?” she spat as she tried to take the dagger from him again, missing as Ignis walked past her towards the wall she was sat by earlier “Guess being an asshole runs with not just the prince but also those who follow him” she added before crossing her arms in front of her “What do you want? How did you even find me anyway?” she questioned

“I had some help from Miss Amicita” he replied

“You mean Iris” she said

“Yes and Miss Vel-” he began

“Cut the formal shit it makes me cringe” she cut him off with a wave of her hand before allowing him to continue 

“Velvet” he began “I would like to apologize on behalf of his Majesty”

“Ugh I’m not bothered about that, I’m used to being talked shit to” she sighed 

“Then it’s comforting to know but I would also like to thank you - sometimes it is needed for the prince to be reminded of those who are less fortunate than him” he finished with a bow

“Just forget about it, it’s fine” she said, averting his gaze “Do you know you way back to Leville?” 

“To be honest, these streets are not familiar to me as it was quite the trek to find you” he chuckled

“Follow me then, I need to speak to Jared anway” she said as she set off with Ignis behind her. A sudden dizzy spell overcame her as she stumbled slightly before a hand on the small of her back steadied her

“Are you okay?” Ignis has concerned keeping his hand on her back, Velvet rubbed her head with her hand - glancing in his direction seeing the close proximity he was in near her bandaged arm causing her to jolt and move away from him

“F-fine, I’m fine” she recovered before she began walking again, glancing back at Ignis who was still stood with his arm out

“Lets go”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The walk back to Leville was awkward to say the least

The walk was completely silent as Velvet led Ignis to their location, Velvet was internally beating herself up as she let that dizzy spell overpower her in front of someone else - she preferred to handle them in private. It took longer than usual with detours they had to make when they stumbled into the more guarded areas of the city

“And here we are” Velvet announced as they made it to the entrance of the hotel

“You have my thanks” Ignis replied as they walked into the reception area where Iris was stood with the others

“There you are!” Iris exclaimed as she skipped over to Velvet “Looks like he managed to find you” she smiled glancing over to Ignis who nodded back

“I didn’t need to be found” she said crossing her arms “Did you find the stuff I mentioned?” 

“Yep, Jared if sorting it all out now and Talcott said thank you for the figurine” she nodded as Gladio, Prompto and Noctis joined her “We was wondering when you both were gonna show up, these two were whining because they’re hungry” she said pointing to Prompto and Noctis

“Come on you really have to tell them that” the blonde complained as Noctis stood their silently 

“The food situation will be sorted momentarily, and the two of you are very welcome to join us” Ignis said “Gladio said you we’re itching to sample my cooking again Iris” he continued

“You bet!” Iris said excitedly 

The group, apart from Velvet, were talking away happily when the sound of a door opening silenced them all. It was Jared leaving one of the back rooms of the reception with some papers for the receptionist and some keys

“Ahh it’s good to see you all made it in one piece” the old man smiled bowing towards the royal guests, his smile soon disappeared as he looked in Velvet's direction “May I have a word Velvet?” he asked before walking back into the office he just left moments ago. Iris looked towards Velvet as she began to walk towards the office

“Velvet I-”

“Just go” she interrupted her “I’ll see you later” she concluded before entering the office and closing the door behind her

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jared stood by the window in the office admiring the evening glow of Lestallum, not looking towards Velvet as she paced into the room “Have a seat” he said, the sound of the chair creaking being his que to turn around and look at Velvet “So are you going to tell me what happened in the market or am I going to have to ask Iris or the law enforcement?” he questioned - his eyes bearing a hole in Velvet as he stared at her 

“It was nothing” she said looking down at her boots

“Velvet” he persisted “I already have the gist of it thanks to the gossip in town so please stop lying and tell me the truth”

“Just some asshole in the market that's all” looking back towards Jared who was visibly angry at her, he was a quiet man but he could be imposing when needed to be

“You can’t cause a commotion like that Velvet you kno-”

“Or what let the idiot batter the kids if they piss him off enough?!” she shouted

“I know your intentions where good but you can’t keep doing this Violet, attacking someone in broad daylight is not just stupid and dangerous with the current situation in Lusis” he retorted

“It was self defense, he got a few hits on me first, what do you expect me to do?” she answered back

“You can only get away with it so many times Velvet!” he raised his voice “If the Empire-”

“Don’t bring them into this!” she cut him off slamming her fist on the coffee table in front of her “Let them come, I’ll kill all of them and I’ll enjoy doing it!”

“You say that but innocent people with be in danger, you may have saved them kids from a bumbling drunk but what about an army the size of the market square with guns and weapons” he argued losing his patience with her as the conversation continued “You need to stop Velvet” he sighed - Velvet’s leg was bouncing from the anger she was holding back “Iris was nearly in tears with the amount of guards that were sent out to look for you”

Velvet stood abruptly shoving the chair she was sat on away with her foot, she walked to the corner of the room with her hands on her hips

Breathe 

“The Empire will get what they deserve” she cooed maliciously “I intend to pay that in full”

“Velvet!” Jared called out to her as she stormed out the room, slamming the door behind her

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading
> 
> Kudos and comments appreciated
> 
> I will try and get the next part uploaded soon


End file.
